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Friday, December 05, 2008

BUZZ: New Twilight Director, New ABC Drama, and Sequel News Galore

FILM• Beyonce's second lead role in the well-reviewed Cadillac Records entered the top 10 at #9, grossing $3.5 mil from more than 600 theaters. The indie garnering Oscar buzz, Frost/Nixon, managed to reach $180,000 with a 3-theater release, and the indie no one was waiting for, Nobel Son, could only gross $371,000 from almost 900 theaters. The sequel Punisher: War Zone failed to impress, coming in at #8 with $4 mil. The biggest surprise was that not many people went to theaters, but those that did were eager to either get into the holiday spirit with Four Christmases or jump on the fan-crazed bandwagon of Twilight. As for the Australian indie The Black Balloon, it failed to garner enough attention for me to even get a gross count. But it's obviously worth seeing, since the Australian Film Institute gave it an award for best film. • Glory HALLELUJAH! They're switching Twilight directors for the second film New Moon. Now, who should get tapped to helm the next three? I vote for anyone who actually knows what they're doing when it comes to the supernatural. [UPDATE:Chris Weitz, who did an incredible job with the unjustly underrated Golden Compass, has been offered the job. We're on the right track.]• Speaking of supernatural auteurs, Underworld director Len Wiseman is gearing up to direct an adaptation of a 5-part, underwater war miniseries called Atlantis Rising. The title says it all. Military squads from all over the world have to investigate oceanic seismic disturbances and are surprised to discover an underground civilization that have emerged to start a war with planet Earth.• Five sneak peaks into Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.• Shia Labeouf had to drop out of a scifi-thriller called Dark Fields because his car accident hand injury is still too severe. Insiders are saying that he'll need more surgeries before he can do another action flick. It's too bad because after reading the synopsis on this film, it sounds like it would've been visually awesome. Read for yourself: "The story follows a loser who gets his hands on a top-secret pharmaceutical drug that makes you smarter. He experiences sudden financial and social success but soon discovers that the drug has lethal and lasting side effects, including 'trip-switching,' a phenomenon in which time moves with a stop-motion quality."• The prequel idea for I Am Legend will essentially be a telling of how the last city, Manhattan, fell, basically chronicling how the creatures (?) took over. Since I didn't see the film, maybe what Will Smith said will make more sense to those who have: "There’s a reason why we have to take a small band and we have to get into D.C. So we have to make our way from New York to D.C. and then back to New York."• Frank Miller informed the press that the Sin City sequel has finally been penned, but Mickey Rourke probably won't reprise his role, since he's not interested in going through the hassle of so much makeup and prep time again.• The fourth Jason Bourne film plot has been revealed. "An American spy falls in love with another spy who is revealed to be a double agent just before her death. When he retires from the business, he learns she may still be alive and sets out to learn the truth." Darn! I was hoping they'd try to incorporate Julia Stiles' character in there somewhere, since she seemed so happy that he survived in the last film.• While we're on the topic of sequels, Sigourney Weaver has said that the next Alien film will feature a different science fiction story and possibly a different creature.• One actor who won't be returning to one of his former claims to fame is Keanu Reeves, who denies signing for the Speed sequel.• Not much has been decided for the next Bond film, but Daniel Craig has confirmed that it won't be a direct sequel to Quantum of Solace, starting off hours or days later like this one did, and it'll be lighter and less morbid.• I think David Fincher has an obsession with serial killers. Some people appreciated the uber long 2007 Zodiac, which might've encouraged him to pursue the adaptation of Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, which is about H.H. Holmes, the first documented serial killer in America.• Miley Cyrus and Raven Simone are set to co-star in the sequel to the 80s film Adventures in Babysitting.

TV• The producers of "Knight Rider" have decided to cancel the reboot of the series and end on the 17th episode, which leaves 9 more to air.• Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) and John Cho (Harold & Kumar) will star in ABC's latest drama "Flash Forward." The plot is based on Robert J. Sawyer's sci-fi novel Flash, which "chronicles the chaos that ensues after everyone in the world passes out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds and has a mysterious vision of the future that changes lives forever." Fiennes will play an FBI agent and former alcoholic who's fighting to win back his family's love in the midst of preventing the vision he had from coming true, while Cho will play his partner, who unfortunately had a blank vision, which could mean death. I wonder if this could be a resurgence for Fiennes, who hasn't had a hit since '98.